TNW Sites

Ooh.com wants to be ‘eBay for events’

A new ad listings site is aiming to take on the might of Craigslist and Eventbrite by becoming a destination site for event and activity listings.

Ooh.com, a new project from UK entrepreneurs Pat Reeves and Rohan Blacker, allows users to advertise trips, courses, classes and events for free. Adding a listing to the site is simple and easy; and advertisers can import photos from Flickr or videos from YouTube to make their listings more interesting. Advertisers can take bookings and payments directly through the site.

Listings can be browsed by location, while advertisers can take bookings and payments directly via their ad listing. Ads can be additionally spruced up with imported photos from Flickr or a video from YouTube.

The site is shaping up to be something of an ‘eBay for events’. It has already attracted a wide variety of advertisers around the world, with a jam-making course in England, paragliding with hawks in Nepal and medieval jousting lessons in California being among the 1000+ events currently listed.

The site aims to differentiate itself from events listings sites like Eventbrite by becoming a destination site to be browsed, rather than a site users visit simply to book tickets. Iain Haywood, an advisor to Ooh.com tells me:

“Ooh.com is designed to be a destination for anything time-bookable. Events as singular one-off entities thus far have featured very marginally in our listings, and typically the bulk of listings are passionate individuals with small scale classes, courses, holidays, trips and rentals who just want a place in which they can keep a regular spot with regular availability, and maintain a reputation (via reviews, feedback etc).

“Aside from standard search, things like the front page noticeboard with various collections/regional/country highlights (which will eventually be dynamic btw) and Google Mashup map browsing should make the platform good for both casual browsing and specific search. I guess what I’m trying to emphasise is a “loyalty” factor, where Eventbrite arguably fulfils the final stage in event planning/booking, Ooh.com should hopefully cater to all stages, from go.”

Ooh.com founders Pat Reeves and Rohan Blacker are also behind Sofa.com, a site with a reported £10m annual turnover which (unsurpsrisingly) sells sofas. Pat and Rohan previousl sold London’s first upmarket fast food delivery business, Deliverance for £5.5m in 2004.